Winter for The Adept





Winter of The Adept by Andrew Cartmel

Winter of the Adept May be one of the most criminally under appreciated stories I’ve ever heard, as I (and not anyone else as far as I’m aware) seem to love it. I’m generally not of the opinion that atmosphere can save a story, but rarely have I seen the atmosphere and environment been so all consuming in an audio. This is literally Zelda: Twilight Princess’s Snowpeak Ruins made into an audio, soft, delicately creepy and beautiful. But it’s not the only brilliant technique, staving off the Doctor for the first episode, the astonishing guest cast, and the brilliant sound design of the Piano which one usually assumes to be part of the musical soundtrack to actually be part of the narrative. Everything in Winter of The Adept is exceptional. Nothing mind breakingly good like Chimes, Marian Conspiracy or other early Main Range productions, but I was utterly surprised by how enraptured I was throughout, Winter is creepy and delicate.
Brave Heart: Five was precisely chosen for this story, his quieter sort of less ham to him than doctors like four, eight, six or seven. Nary, I say Five’s presence works in this story better than any other Doctor. His quiet unassumingness makes the creepy aspects and he just feels utterly at home with this frigid beautiful landscape. Well, not in universe, but it’s a great match tonally. Davison is excellent here. It’s strange how while Six or other doctors make themselves known in the narrative, Davison needs the narrative to be stronger otherwise he sinks into too meek. Nonetheless, I love him throughout, (especially the “little baby Jesus” outtake)!
Nyssa: Nyssa seems somehow less strong, but I love her chemistry with all of the girls at the school, who incidentally are all exceptional. It also makes use of Nyssa’s Traken Psychic abilities which I’m pretty sure only come up in like two stories. So top tier there!
Overall: Winter for The Adept is my #1 underrated BF story. Give it a listen, It’s only a 9 based off of how much better other early MR stories are. 9/10




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